At Friday's post-cabinet meeting press conference, Balearic Government spokesperson and vice-president, Antoni Costa, said the government no longer believes an increase to the tourist tax is a necessary measure.
A possible increase is due to be discussed by representatives of those entities which are currently attending meetings of the government's sustainability pact. The government has all along said it would wait for the pact's deliberations before definitively announcing any changes to the tax. Costa insisted on Friday that the government is "just one stakeholder" in the pact and would adopt any decision taken.
He pointed out that it was President Prohens who had proposed an increase for the high summer in the first place. While the government doesn't feel this is now necessary, it will "fulfil its commitment" by submitting the proposal for debate.
Absent from the meeting will be PSOE, the main opposition party, who registered a parliamentary motion for an increase to the tax last autumn but who have abandoned the pact, as they consider it to be a farce. Other parties on the left have also walked away, as have the likes of the Forum for Civil Society. Those to have stuck with it include unions and business groups such as the hoteliers.
Costa explained that "empirical evidence" from 2025 and forecasts for 2026 have resulted in the view that a tax increase is no longer necessary. The increase in tourist numbers during peak season was 0.7% while the Human Pressure Index decreased during those months. Overall, there was an increase in tourist numbers in 2025 to just over 19 million, but most of the growth occurred in months other than July and August.
The vice president argued that "containment policies are yielding results". "We conclude that we are on the right track." He maintained that lessening the impact of seasonality was finally being achieved. The peak season has "practically" reached its maximum, so the government's intention is to contain the number of tourists during those months, while there is "room to manoeuvre" in the other months of the year.